Founded by actor and playwright Tony Moore more than a decade ago, ByChance has almost exclusively existed to stage Moore's own lightly comedic, often family-centric work. Moore, however, moved to Charlotte several months ago, and in his absence his friends and cohorts Pamela Grier and Audrey McCrummen have brought ByChance out of its brief dormancy to stage a trio of 19th century, one-act farces at the Cape Fear Playhouse. Moore is listed as executive producer, while Grier directs and McCrummen is the show's technical director.

It's a fun idea – as far as I'm concerned, there are far too few productions of one-act plays in this town – but one that produces mixed results. One can't help coming away from the show without feeling that these works were rushed to the stage. Notice of their performance was made scarely a week before opening night, and no doubt a compressed timeline forced by the holidays didn't do the production any favors.

The evening opens with "The Bear," Anton Chekhov's comedic battle of the sexes about a grieving widow confronted with a desperate man who's owed money by her late husband. Terri Batson plays the widow, Elena (the characters' names have been Americanized, presumably to eliminate the need for Russian accents), and she captures well the character's misplaced sense of propriety. Even though her husband was a serial philanderer, she intends "to be faithful to the grave to show him what real love means."

Charles Auten plays the bear of the title – it's sometimes translated as "boor" – and his uncouth character's frantic indignation over having to wait for money he needs immediately can feel a little outsized as it tends to force the comedy instead of letting it happen naturally. Even so, there's some wonderfully goofy gunplay and Chekhov's observations on the often silly dance between the sexes remain as relevant as ever.

Play number two, Arnold Bennett's "The Stepmother," is the most successful of the three, largely because of Beth Raynor's performance as Christine Feversham, the scheming secretary to Brandy Jones' successful novelist, Cora Prout. Raynor has a chirpily subversive stage presence, and she's great at expressing a mischievousness thinly veiled by politeness that plays well again the barely contained neurosis displayed by Jones' romantically and professionally beleaguered writer.

The rest of the cast – Ron Hasson as the love-besotted Dr. Gardener and Anthony Corvino as Prout's reckless, ethically impaired stepson – help create the play's squirmy sense of intrigue while Grier's spot-on direction brings the play in to its satisfyingly cute resolution.

The evening ends with "Box and Cox," the classic farce by J.M. Morton about two lodgers who unwittingly share the same room (Cox works in the day, Box at night) thanks to a duplicitous landlady, Mrs. Bouncer (Grier), intent on getting double rent.

Langley McArol as the grumpy Box and Bradley Cox as the high-strung Cox have a decent rapport, but the play never achieves the breakneck pace or energy it needs, and the all-over-the-place accents (Cox takes on a heavy English accent, but no one else does) prove a distraction.

McCrummen's set is austere but serviceable, while Katie Allen has a nice eye for period costumes that help set the 19th century tone.